Plasmons are electron charge density waves (ie. oscillations of free (conduction) electrons) that are confined to the surface of a conductor and are generated when photons of light, usually in the visible and infrared regions, strike a conductor such as a thin conducting metal film. For plasmons to be generated, the photons that impinge upon the conducting material cannot simply be reflected by the conducting material, but rather, a significant portion of the photons must be absorbed so that energy and momentum from the incident photons are transformed into surface plasmons. This absorption of photonic energy by a conducting material is referred to in the art as coupling. The more extensive the coupling, the more substantial will be the generation of plasmons.
It is known that coupling between photons and a smooth conductive surface is somewhat weak. The weak coupling is caused by the inability to satisfy both energy and momentum conservation when inter-converting between photons and surface plasmons. It is further known that exposing the photons to some form of periodic perturbation on the surface of the conducting material increases the degree of coupling. This elevated degree of coupling results from satisfying energy and momentum conservation by perturbing the electromagnetic environment at the surface. In many instances, such perturbations are produced by etching the surface of the conducting material. While virtually any etching pattern can be used, two of the more common patterns are concentric circles around a circular aperture, and long narrow ridges beside a longitudinal aperture. The spacing, width and depth of the etchings control the propagation of the plasmons through a sub-wavelength aperture since, it has been theorized, the etchings act as directional antennas by first coupling photons to the aperture and then re-radiating them in a narrow beam through the aperture.
The speed at which plasmons propagate through a conductor is less than the speed of the light that impinged upon the conductor and generated the plasmons. However, while the velocities of the light and plasmons differ, the frequencies of the light and the plasmons generated by that light are equal. Consequently, since λ=υ/f, the wavelength of the plasmons are appreciably shorter (on the order of a factor of 103) than the wavelength of the light that caused the generation of the plasmons. For an aperture having a diameter less than the wavelength of the incident light, transmission of the light through the aperture is rather limited. In fact, it is proportional to the fourth power of the aperture diameter and the optical wavelength, i.e. transmission ˜(d/λ)4. However, light of longer wavelength that could not propagate through a sub-wavelength aperture, when converted into plasmons of shorter wavelength, can propagate through the sub-wavelength aperture. That is, the sub-wavelength aperture essentially functions as a light valve since it permits the propagation of plasmons but not the light that generated those plasmons.